Winding



March 24, 1942. B o T 2,277,574

WINDING Filed Feb. 10, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Irv/wank)" W a! Jflaifi @WMarch 24, 1942.

E. J. ABBOTT WINDING Filed Feb. 10, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet '2 Patented Mar.24, 1942 WINDIN G Edward 3. Abbott, Wilton, N. R, assignor to AbbottMachine Company, Wilton, N. 11., a corporation of New HampshireApplication February 10, 1940, Serial No. 318,277

21 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved form of wound package and to amethod and mechanism for winding it. Among the principal objects of theinvention are to produce a wound yam package having the generalcharacteristics of the typical cross wound cheese or cone but from whichthe yarn is more easily unwound over the end of the package, and whichis of greater capacity than the typical cheese or cone in that it has agreater density in the portion between the end faces.

Further objects of invention are to provide an improved method andimproved apparatus for producing this new form of package of theinvention; to provide a yarn package capable of production by asimplified form of winding machine; and to provide an improved form ofwinding machine in which rapid reciprocation of a traversing yarn guideis avoided.

Other objects of invention and features of utility will be apparent fromthis specification and its drawings wherein the invention is explainedby way of example.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a front elevation of a portion of a winding machine accordingto this invention, showing thereon a number of the new yarn packages ofthis invention;

Fig. 2 is a right end elevation of the upper portion of the windingmachine of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 shows a winding package core having thereon a few turns of yarnas initially wound in forming the package of this invention.

Referring to Fig. l, the winding machine frame indicated generally at lI carries on lower rails I2 any suitable bobbin-holding devices for theunwinding supply bobbins l3. From bobbins l3 the yarn Y passes upwardlybetween wire yarn guides Hi and tension disks l5 (all of which can besubstantially as shown in Fig. 1 of United States Patent No. 1,965,363),thence further upwardly and into the yarn winding groove l8 of a packagedriving roll I9, from whence it passes onto the surface of the windingpackage indicated at P.

The several package drive rolls IS on one side of the machine aremounted on a common shaft directly driven by an electric motor 2! at theend of the machine.

A central shaft serves as a pivotal support for package-carrying arms26, 21 which carry projections adapted to engage the centers of theopposite ends of the winding package cores 28. Package-carrying arms 26are yieldingly urged toward the package core 28 by any suitable spring,and extend outwardly beyond the winding package core sumciently to serveas a handle which can be shifted slightly to the left by the operator soas to disengage the winding package core.

Inwinding the new form of package the Winding yarn is givenapproximately the same angle of traverse as in typical cross wound conesor cheeses, but in the great majority of strokes of traverse istraversed only through one part, for example, a half of the length ofthe package; then after a number of turns of cross winding in thismanner, the yarn is shifted over onto the remainder of the length of thepackage and wound similarly, building up the package by winding fairlythin layers of cross wound yarn in these alternate zones until the wholepackage has reached the size of the common form of cheese or cone.

In the preferred illustrated form of the invention, the winding packagedrive roll I9 is of such diameter that its groove l8 makes two completeturns about the roll and accordingly crosses itself once. The groove Win effect constitutes two spiral groove portions, one occupying theportion of the drum corresponding to the left half of the windingpackage and the other occupying the portion of the drum corresponding tothe right half of the winding package, these two groove portionsabutting and merging at the crossing indicated at 30.

In producing the illustrated packages, the yarn is first traversed, incross wound formation back and forth across one half (for example theleft half) of the length of the exposed package during the time thepackage drive roll makes approximately thirty revolutions which resultsin winding on from about two hundred and fifty to about twenty wraps ofyarn depending on the package diameter. As carried out by theillustrated machine, this method avoids any necessity for the yarncrossing over from the left to the right half of the groove I8 until forexample two hundred and fifty to twenty wraps of yarn have been wound onthe left half of the package. The yarn is then guided through thecrossing into the right half of the groove I8 and an approximately equalnumber of wraps of yarn wound on the right half of the package whereuponthe yarn is returned to the left half of the groove and this sequencecontinued until the package attains the required diameter.

Any necessity for any quick-acting yarn guide to carry the yarn acrossthe crossing is thus avoided since the yarn needs to be returned throughthe crossing only once in about every two hundred and fifty to twentywraps, depending on the package diameter.

A preferred form of mechanism for shifting the yarn from one half of thegroove to the other consists in a slow-moving mechanism for shifting theyarn guides l4 and tension devices ll slightly to the left and right ofa central position with respect to their package driving rolls l9. Asshown in Figs. 1 and 2 one of the motors 2 I, which drives the driveroll shafts 20 is connected by a pulley 33, belt 34, pulley 35, shaft36, worm 31, worm wheel 38 and shaft 39 to cams 40 which act in slots llof the rails 42 which support the yarn guides I4 and tension device ii.The gearing 33 to 40, inclusive has a ratio such that rail 42 is slowlyshifted back and forth through a stroke of approximately one-half inch,making one such cycle of motion for every approximately sixtyrevolutions of the drums it. As a consequence during approximatelythirty revolutions of the drums It the yarn will be traversed by theleft half of the groove ll of the drums of Fig. 1, the yarn guides l4and tension devices I! being then in the left half of their slow cycleof reciprocation, whereupon shortly after these pass the vertical centerbetween the unwinding bobbins and the drums It in going to the right,the yarn is led across the crossing 30 in the groove and thereupon istraversed by the right half of the groove during another approximatelythirty revolutions of the drums I9.

Obviously within the scope of this invention many forms of mechanism canbe employed to cause the yarn to be traversed with a quicktraversethroughone part of the length of the package and then carried over ontothe remainder of the, length of the package, and so forth. Moreover, itwill be apparent that where a grooved roll or drum is employed as thefinal agency to distribute the yarn on the winding package, the grooveor drum does not need to have any special provision for carrying theyarn across the crossing in the groove, since this function is readilyperformed by a slowly moving element adapted to engage the yarn inadvance of the grooved drum.

Fig. 3 shows the winding package core- 28 in the condition in which itis found after the first group of say two hundred and fifty wraps ofyarn have been wound in cross-wound formation in the left half zone aand winding begun in the right zone b; while Fig. 1 shows the packagesas approximatelyhalf completed and having a definite boundary indicatedat XX between the two abutting halves of each package, this boundary X-Xbeing demarked by reversals of spirals of yarn of the two abuttingparts. It.

will be understood, however, that each of the two halves of the packagesare tied together by the yarn which, from about every two hundred andfifty to about every twenty wraps, has been carried over from one halfof the package to the other without reversal so as to extend in the formof a spiral substantially from one end of the package to the other. Thusthe completed package is in no sense separable or even easily breakableat the boundary between its two halves. On the other hand, the packageinstead of having only two end faces which are defined and formed by thecusps of yarn at the reversals of the spiral windings, includes foursuch faces, the usual two at the ends of the package and two others inthe middle at the boundary between the two halves.

Ordinarily a typical cheese or cone is considerably denser near its twoend faces than in the middle portion. Yarn laid onto a rotating core orpackage with the necessary angle of traverse to make a cross-woundcheese or cone tends to draw in from the end portions of the packagewhere its traverse is reversed and occupy a curve of from about two tothree inches in radius, and the larger the diameter of the package, theless sharply the yarn can be laid at the end portions of the package fora given traverse ratio. The pressure at which the newly laid yarn iswound on the package somewhat squeezes it out toward the ends of thepackage thus producing fairly sharp cusps, but ordinarily the result ofthese several effects is that the yarn is somewhat more crowded togethernear the end faces of the package than in the middle portion andaccordingly the package is denser near the end faces than in the middle.These effects tend to produce flanges near the two end faces of thepackage. In subjecting the package to the frictional driving effect of aroll in winding, or to the efiect of an unwinding tractor roll such asemployed in end-finding mechanism in United States Letters Patent No.2,177,763 there is ordinarily a tendency for the package to be drivenalmost entirely by the yarn of these two flanges, so that wear andchafing of the yarn occurs at these places.

On the other hand, the eflect of winding the package in the novel formof this invention is to produce a region in the middle of the packagewhere the yarn has the same density and the same tendency to formflanges as at the two ends, thus not only increasing the capacity of thepackage but giving it a larger effective surface of contact with thedrive roll in the case of winding or with the unwinding tractor roll inthe case of end-winding.

In addition, the yarn is more satisfactorily unwound over the end ofthis novel package than in the case of the usual cheese or cone. Inunwinding from the typical cross wound package the yarn tends to springout into a big balloon while leading from the base up toward the tip andso becomes slackand unwinds easily. Then, when the yarn is taken offtowards the base of the package, the slack in the yarn is immediatelydrawn out and the tension in the yarn tends to wrap it around thesurface of the package or pull it down toward the surface of the packageand cause breakage. However, in unwinding from the package of thepresent invention, where the normal shift of the yarn up and down thepackage is only one-half of the height of the package, there isconsiderably less change in the yarn tension as the yarn runs up anddown the package in unwinding, and consequently less danger of the yarncatching on the package and breaking.

It has previously been proposed to wind the typical cheese asdistinguished from the improved package of this invention, by atraversing mechanism consisting of a roll having a crossed groove and asupplemental yarn guide contacting the yarn ahead of the roll and movingback and forth with the yarn to cause the yarn to go across the crossingin the groove each time the crossing was encountered by the yarn. Suchprior proposed machines have necessarily involved imparting to thesupplemental yarn guide the same number of traversing movements or picksas the traversing yarn itself. Thus to attain high speeds of winding, itwould be necessary with such prior proposed machines, to operate thesupplemental yarn guide at high speed, and the speed at which suchsupplemental yarn guide could be run would limit the winding speed.

On the other hand, in the machine disclosed in the present applicationthe supplemental yarn guide can be run at a very slow speed even whenwinding at a very high speed so that in this machine the speed of thesupplemental yarn guide is not a limiting factor in the winding speed.

I claim:

1. A method of winding comprising distributing the same yarn in aplurality of layers of crosswound formation on one part of the length ofthe package, then in a plurality of layers of crosswound formation onthe remainder of the length of the package, repeating this until thepackage attains the desired diameter.

2. A method of winding comprising distributing the same yarn in aplurality of layers of crosswound formation on approximately one-half ofthe length of the package, then in a plurality of layers of cross-woundformation on the other approximately one-half of the length of thepackage, repeating this until the package attains the desired diameter.

3. A method of winding comprising distributing the same yarn in fromabout two hundred and fifty to about twenty wraps of cross-woundformation on one part of the length of the package, then in a similarnumber of wraps on the remainder of the length of the package, repeatingthis until the package attains the desired diameter.

4. A wound yarn package of the same yarn having a portion distributed ina plurality of layers of cross-wound formation on one part of the lengthof the package, then a portion distributed in a plurality of layers ofcross-wound formation on the remainder of the length of the package,then a portion distributed in a plurality of layers of cross-woundformation on the firstmentioned part of the length of the package and soon in this order.

5. A wound yarn package of the same yarn having a portion distributed ina plurality of lay ers of cross-wound formation on approximatelyone-half of the length of the package, then a portion distributed in aplurality of layers of cross-wound formation on the remainder of thelength of the package, then a portion distributed in a plurality oflayers of cross-wound formation on the first-mentioned approximatelyonehalf of the length of the package, and so on in this order.

6. A wound yarn package of the same yarn therebetween demarked byreversals of the spirals of yarn of the two abutting parts, a relativelysmall proportion of the spirals continuing across said boundary withoutreversal, to provide a plurality of connections between the two parts ofthe package, said spirals which continue across the boundary withoutreversal being distributed substantially throughout the thickness of thepackage.

'7. A wound yarn. package of the same yarn wound in cross-wound spirals,the package consisting of two abutting parts with a boundarytherebetween demarked by reversals of the spi rals of yarn of the twoabutting parts, a relatively small proportion of the spirals continuingacross said boundary without reversal and extending substantially fromend to end of the package to provide a plurality of connections betweenthe two parts of the package, said spirals which continue across theboundary without reversal being distributed substantially throughout thethickness of the package.

8. A wound yarn package of the same yarn wound in cross-wound spirals,the package consisting of two abutting parts with .a boundarytherebetween demarked by reversals of the spirals of yarn of the twoabutting parts, from one out of approximately two hundred and fifty toone out of approximately twenty of the spirals continuing across saidboundary without reversal to provide a plurality of connections betweenthe two parts of the package, said spirals which continue across theboundary without reversal being distributed substantially throughout thethickness of the package.

9; Awound yarn package of the same yarn wound in cross-wound spirals,the package consisting of two abutting parts each of approximately halfthe length of the package with a boundary therebetween demarked byreversals of the spirals of yarn of the two abutting parts, a relativelysmall proportion of the spirals continuing across said boundarywithoutreversal to provide a plurality of connections between the twoparts of the package, said spiral which continue across the boundarywithout reversal being distributed substantially throughout thethickness of the package.

10. A winding machine having therein means for distributing the windingyarn in a plurality of groups of layers of cross-wound formation on onepart of the length of the package, means for distributing the same yarnin a plurality of groups of layers of cross-wound formation on theremainder of the length of the package, and means for causing the yarnto be acted on by said means separately in succession during thewinding, whereby the groups are wound alternately by said distributingmeans.

11. A winding machine having therein means for distributing the windingyarn in a plurality of groups of layers of cross-wound formation onapproximately one-half of the length of the package, means fordistributing the same yarn in a plurality of groups of layers ofcross-Wound formation on the remainder of the length of the package, andmeans for causing the yarn to be acted on by said means separately insuccession during the winding, whereby the groups are wound alternatelyby said distributing means.

12. A winding machine having therein two alternately effective traversemeans, one of said traverse means being adapted to traverse the windingyarn in cross-wound spirals in one part of the length of the windingpackage, and the other of said traverse mean being adapted to traversethe winding yarn in cross-wound spirals in the remaining part of thelength of the package, and supplemental yarn guiding means operatingperiodically after the traversing of the yarn in a plurality ofcross-wound spirals by one of said traverse means to transfer thewinding yarn to the other of said traverse means.

13. A winding machine having therein two alternately effective traversemeans, one of said traverse means being adapted to traverse the windingyarn in cross-wound spirals in approximately one-half of the length ofthe winding package, and the other of said traverse means being adaptedto traverse the winding yarn in cross-wound spirals in the remainingpart of the length of the package, and supplemental yarnguidmg meansoperating periodically after the traversing oi the yarn in a pluralityof crosswound spirals by one of said traverse means to transfer thewinding yarn to the other of said traverse means.

14. A winding machine having therein a yarn traversing roll havingthereon groove portions adapted respectively to traverse the windingyarn in cross-wound spirals on one part of the length of the windingpackage and in cross-wound spirals on the remaining part or the lengthof the package, and supplemental yarn guiding means operatingperiodically after the traversing of the yarn in a plurality ofcross-wound spirals by one or said portions of the groove to guide thewinding yarn to the other of said portions of the groove.

15. A winding machine having therein a yarn traversing roll havingthereon groove portions adapted respectively to traverse the windingyarn in cross-wound spirals on approximately one half of the length ofthe winding package and in cross-wound spirals on the remaining part ofthe length of the package, and supplemental yarn guiding means operatingperiodically after the traversing of the yarn in a plurality ofcrosswound spirals by one of said portions of the groove to guide thewinding yarn to the other of said portions of the groove.

16. A winding machine having therein a yarn traversing grooved roll, thegroove having one crossing, the portion of the groove on one side 01'the crossing being adapted to traverse the winding yarn in cross-woundspirals on one part of the length or the winding package, and theportion of the groove on the other side of the crossing being adapted totraverse the winding yarn in cross-wound spirals on the remaining partof the length of the package, and supplemental yarn-guiding meansoperating periodically after the traversing of the yarn in a pluralityof cross-wound spirals by one of said portions of the groove to transferthe winding yarn to the other of said portions of the groove.

17. A winding machine having therein a yarn traversing grooved roll, thegroove having one crossing, the portion oi! the groove on one side ofthe crossing being adapted to traverse the winding yarn in cross-woundspirals on approximately one-half of the length of the winding package.and the portion or the groove on the other side of the crossing beingadapted to traverse the winding yarn in cross-wound spirals on theremaining part of the length of the package, and supplementalyarn-guiding means operating periodically after the traversing of theyarn in a plurality of cross-wound spirals by one of said portions ofthe grooveto transfer the in cross-wound spirals on one part of thelength of the winding package and in cross-wound spirals on theremaining part 01' the length or the package, a reciprocable memberextending along the machine, yarn guides on said member positioned toguide the winding yarn; in advance of said traversing rolls. and aconnection between til the traversing rolls and said reciprocable memberimparting to said member and yarn guides a short relatively slowreciprocating motion adapted, periodically after the traversing of theyarn in a plurality oi cross-wound spirals by one of said grooveportions, to guide the yarn to the other or said groove portions.

19. A winding machine having therein means for distributing the windingyarn in a plurality oi. groups of layers of cross-wound formation on onepart of the length of the package, means for distributing the same yarnin a plurality of groups of layers 01 cross-wound formation on theremainder of the length 01 the package, means for guiding the yarn tosaid distributing means successively and means for causing said guidingmeans to shift the yarn alternately from one distributing means to theother distributing means upon the completion of each group of layers.

20. A winding machine having therein means for distributing the windingyarn in a plurality of groups of layers of cross-wound formation on onepart of the length oi! the package, means for distributing the same yarnin a plurality of groups of layers of cross-wound formation on theremainder of the length of the package, and means for successivelyguiding the yarn to one distributing means until a group of layers hasbeen wound on one part of the length of the package and then to theother distributing means until a group of layers has been wound on theremainder of the package.

21. A winding machine having therein means for distributing the windingyarn in a plurality of groups of layers or cross-wound formation on onepart of the length or the package, means for distributing the same yarnin a plurality of groups of layers of cross-wound rormation on theremainder of the length of the package, means for guiding the yarn tosaid distributing means successively and means for causing said guidingmean to shift the yarn from one distributing means to the other upon thecompletion oi each group of layers.

EDWARD J. ABBO'I'I.

